For all of the fiscal and environmental logic that supports the case for a carbon tax in the U.S., the politics keep getting in the way. Besides the opposition from most elected conservatives, two developments looming in the future could change all this. One is the currently low interest rates on U.S. Treasury securities making…

The number of companies taking tangible steps to prepare for and prosper in a lower-carbon economy is growing — even absent a national carbon tax or cap-and-trade regime. Their actions speak much louder than the hyperbole that many advocates are using to argue for and against paying for carbon emissions. One of the most instructive…

UPDATED . . . whether the U.S. and more governments will focus their nation’s economic priorities on a cleaner energy future and a healthier environment with a carbon tax or cap and trade program seems as bleak as ever. But for how much longer? If you know of others, help me keep track here of…

The possible revival of serious talks about a U.S. carbon tax should take thought-leaders to the most recent credible analysis in a book finished earlier this year by Shi-Ling Hsu, a professor at the University of British Columbia: The Case for a Carbon Tax. Here I cut to the chase to spotlight the 10 reasons…

It might only apply to industry emissions and nary a Republican would dare admit to seriously considering it, but talk of a possible carbon tax is making the rounds in political Washington and elsewhere. Think about it. A carbon tax does not lack for support among mainstream energy and fiscal policy experts; it has drawn…

Author Marc Gunther has a new e-book — Suck It Up — that does an excellent job of spotlighting and explaining technologies with the potential for capturing carbon dioxide in the air and selling it to end-users who need more of it. Because CO2 exists everywhere in the atmosphere, one trick to building a sustainable…

As the next Congress goes to work in January 2013, this scenario could play out almost purely because it makes the ‘math’ work for a workable fiscal policy. If Barack Obama is re-elected President and Democrats regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives — or not — there almost surely will come a time when…

As the next round of international negotiations about a possible climate change treaty — the 17th to be exact since the Kyoto Treaty was signed in 1992 — get up to speed in Durban, South Africa, it’s becoming increasingly clear that an environmental emergency stands the best chance of compelling industrialized countries to act. That’s…

RE < C ? Not without a carbon tax or cap and trade system. Google’s decision to stop trying to make clean electricity less expensive than power from traditional “dirty” coal-fired power plants was destined to come up short. Congress’ unwillingness in 2009 to create a carbon cap and trade system made sure of that….

The 4th District Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia holds the key to a first-of-its-kind attempt by Montgomery County, Maryland to place a $5-per-ton tax on emissions from the predominantly coal-fired Mirant Corp. power plant in the county. Because it is the only large source of carbon emissions in the county that would be liable…

about The Energy Fix

Jim Pierobon is Founder and principal writer of The Energy Fix. He is a policy, marketing and social media strategist who has reported on, testified and consulted about smarter grids, cyber-security as it affects the power grid, fossil fuel shortages, price spikes, energy efficiency and the rise and fall -- and the rise again of nuclear and renewable energy sources.